From what I have seen, you can get DRM-free pirated version of the game usually a couple of days after the official release.

People who pirate the game, never have to suffer because of DRM. Only people who purchase the game have to suffer because of it.

Isn't that the exact opposite of what should happen?

Except that isn't quite true. Lots of games are delayed for days and weeks because of DRM - and lots of people are so impatient that they'll buy the game because they're not going to wait.

Games with online-only gameplay like Diablo 3 can't really be pirated properly - so that's an even more effective measure.

Beyond that - DRM releases tend to get cracked patches much later, if at all. Meaning the pirates will have to suffer more bugs and so on.

I don't care what any analysis says. A strong DRM protection WILL reduce piracy of any popular title. That's just common sense.

However, I do believe that less popular games can be hurt by poor DRM - because people will use it to justify piracy and won't bother buying a game early to get access if they're not really too interested in it.

Some publishers are morons, though - or just straight-up liars. They seem to think that because they pour millions and millions of dollars into a game - it MUST be popular and as such, their rigid DRM implementation SHOULD help against piracy.

But gamers aren't that gullible - and they don't really care about how many millions went into making yet another clone shooter or whatever. It has to stand out in a big way or be online-only to make people spend their cash.